Brush drive mechanism for carpet sweepers



Aug. 7, 1951 E. E. RIGBY BRUSH DRIVE MECHANISM FOR CARPET SWEEPERS FiledApril 7, 1948 ERNST EPHRAIM RIGBY Patented Aug. 7, 1951 BRUSH DRIVEMECHANISM SWEEPER'S' as i Ernest Ephraim Riglgy, Prstom EnglandApplication April 7, 1948, Serial No. 19,617 In Great Britain April 11,1947 1 Claim. 1

The present invention relates to hand operated machines for cleaningfloors, carpets and the like, which are commonly known as carpetsweepers.

According to this invention a carpet sweeper is provided with twobrushes, each of which is driven in one direction only, irrespective ofthe direction of movement of the carpet sweeper, and each of which isdriven in the opposite direction to the other, the said brushes beingfrictionally driven from at least one supporting wheel of the carpetsweeper by two alternative trains of driving connections which areselectively brought into and out of operation on reversal of thedirection of movement of the carpet sweeper, the arrangement being suchthat after leaving the carpet the bristles of the respective brusheswill first approach one another and then diverge after moving throughapproximately a quarter of a revolution.

It is believed that by maintaining such directional rotation of thebrushes, irrespective of the direction of travel of the sweeper, it ispossible, due to the co-operation of the respectiv brushes with oneanother, largely to avoid projection of dust to the exterior of thesweeper casing.

The invention is further described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings which illustrates one form of construction of the invention byway of example and in which:

Figure 1 is a view of one end of a carpet sweeper;

Figure 2 is a sectional View on the line II--II of Figure 1; and tFigure 3 is a fragmentary plan view corresponding to Figure 1.

The cleaner or carpet sweeper according to Figures 1, 2 and 3 has acasing formed of side walls I, 2 and two end walls 3 of which only oneis shown in the drawings. The end walls 3 are spaced inwardly from theends of the side walls I, 2 to provide a space 4 for the brush drivingmeans. A metal band 5 is provided at each end of the carpet sweeper andextends from the end of the side wall I to the end of the side wall 2and serves to support journals 6 at the ends of the brush bodies I.

At each end of the carpet sweeper there is provided a supporting wheel 8borne at the lower end of a lever 9 which is pivoted at III to an endwall 3. The levers 9 are connected at their upper ends to a handleconnection II (only a portion of which is shown in Figures 1 and 2) andthe handle connection I I is provided at its mid length with a socket toreceive a handle or stave.

The brush bodies I are provided at each end counterclockwise directionto hold the wheel 8 in contact with the boss I6 of the pulley I3 tocause the pulley I3 to move in a clockwise direction and pulley I2 tomove in a counterclockwise direction as indicated in Figure 1 by thearrows drawn in full lines. If the direction of movement of the carpetsweeper is reversed then the pull on the yoke II will urge lever 9 in aclockwise direction to bring the wheel 8 into engagement with the bossI5 of pulley I2 to cause the pulley I2 and its brush to rotate in acounterclockwise direction, i. e. in a counterclockwise direction andthus to cause the pulley I9 and its brush to rotate in a clockwisedirection i. e. in the same direction as before.

It will be appreciated that the driving arrangement illustrated in thedrawings is preferably provided in duplicate one on each end of thecarpet sweeper.

It Will also be appreciated that in the form of construction describedwith reference to the drawings, either the brushes or the supportingwheel or wheels are suitably connected to or influenced by the handleconnection to cause 1ongitudinal displacement thereof and thus to changethe train of driving connections to the brushes on reversal of themovement of the sweeper.

Dust pans of any suitable form may be provided in the casing of cleanersof the present invention but for the sake of simplicity and as they arewell known in the art they ar not shown in the accompanying drawings.

I declare that what I claim is:

In a cleaner of the type set forth, a casing, a pair of rotary brusheslying between the ends of the casing and each provided with a bossedpulley on at least one end thereof, a crossed belt connecting saidpulleys, a supporting wheel at each end of the casing and locatedbetween said pulleys, a pair of levers pivoted one to each end of thecasing and each connected at its lower end to one of said supportingwheels, a handle connection extending between the upper ends of saidlevers and adapted on reversal of movement of the cleaner to causeangular displacement of said REFERENCES CITED levers and movement ofsaid supporting wheels The following references are of record in thefrom driving engagement with one brush and into me of this patent;driving engagement with the other brush whereby to reverse the drivingrelationship between said 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS wheels and saidbrushes and to maintain the ro- Number Name Date tation of said brushesin the same direction ir- 173,582 Breckenridge Feb. 15, 1876 respectiveor the direction of movement of the 598,602 Keesee Feb. 8, 1898 cleaner,'the arrangement and disposition of the 642,172 Sweitzer Jan. 30, 1900parts being such that after leaving the carpet the 10 755,59 Keyes Mar.22, 1904 bristles of the respective brushes wil1 first ap- 1,886,950French Nov, 8, 1932 preach one another and then diverge after movingthrough approximately one quarter of a revolution.

ERNEST EPI-lRAm RIGBY.

